Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) earned praise from “drug justice” advocates after criticizing a growing marijuana legalization and business model that is paving the way for white male investors to reap major profits after minorities spent decades in prisons for selling pot. She made her comments during a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing this week on banking services for the burgeoning cannabis industry as more states legalize the sale and use of marijuana. She suggested the growing industry was “compounding the racial wealth gap” by allowing wealthy white-dominated companies to gain a quick advantage in the industry. She complained that communities...

Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence January 2019 • Volume 48, Number 1 • Alex Berenson Alex Berenson "Seventy miles northwest of New York City is a hospital that looks like a prison, its drab brick buildings wrapped in layers of fencing and barbed wire. This grim facility is called the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Institute. It’s one of three places the state of New York sends the criminally mentally ill—defendants judged not guilty by reason of insanity. Until recently, my wife Jackie­—Dr. Jacqueline Berenson—was a senior psychiatrist there. Many of Mid-Hudson’s 300 patients are killers and arsonists. At least one is...

The men and women collecting petition signatures outside Metro Super Market in Temple City warned of a marijuana takeover and greedy politicians eager to speed it along. They accused Andre Quintero, the mayor of El Monte, of wanting to make the San Gabriel Valley famous as a cannabis hub. Quintero has backed a sprawling marijuana facility in El Monte as the start of a larger effort to make cannabis an economic engine for a working-class, predominantly Latino city that has long suffered from financial woes. He also sees marijuana cultivation as a way of boosting the city’s standing. “I’ll look...

Just because it's legal, doesn't mean it's safe. Exposure to cannabis – and, specifically, to THC – while in utero leads to heart defects and metabolic limitations likely to result in heart disease and diabetes later in life, according to a Western-led study. "My obstetrical colleagues started telling me how patients were self-medicating with cannabis. It's thought to be good to reduce anxiety, nausea and (to increase) appetite," said Daniel Hardy, a Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry professor. "All the studies to date have tried to address how exposure to cannabis in pregnancy influences offspring have been limited to...

[snip] So I did. The big studies, the little ones, and all the rest. I read everything I could find. I talked to every psychiatrist and brain scientist who would talk to me. And I soon realized that in all my years as a journalist I had never seen a story where the gap between insider and outsider knowledge was so great, or the stakes so high. I began to wonder why—with the stocks of cannabis companies soaring and politicians promoting legalization as a low-risk way to raise tax revenue and reduce crime—I had never heard the truth about marijuana,...

Baltimore’s top prosecutor has filed a rarely used legal petition intended to vacate 3,778 convictions for possession of marijuana, arguing an extraordinary legal strategy is necessary to “right an extraordinary wrong.” In a highly unusual “Maryland v. Maryland” filing in state court, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby used a petition called “writ of error coram nobis” that allows a court to reopen cases when substantial error is found that wasn’t apparent in initial judgments. The petition, if granted, could wipe out thousands of pot possession convictions. Mosby’s arguments are based on what she paints as an opportunity to achieve retroactive justice...

SANTA FE, N.M. — There’s a new push to allow medical cannabis on school grounds. Sen. Candace Gould, R-Albuquerque, has pre-filed Senate Bill 204, aiming to allow the medicine in schools and on school buses, and to be administered by staff. Yet the bill allows exclusions for districts that demonstrate they will lose or have lost federal funding from allowing medical cannabis. If passed, students with a treatment plan – agreed upon by the school’s principal and the student’s legal guardian – and a certification for use of medical cannabis will be allowed to take the drug at school. Designated...

Older people are the fastest-growing group of cannabis users, as stigma fades and some seek an alternative to prescription drugs As attitudes towards cannabis shift, the fastest-growing group of users is over 50 – and marijuana’s popularity among seniors is beginning to change the American experience of old age. Why are more seniors getting high? It might make more sense to ask: “Why not?” As adults reach retirement, they age out of drug tests and have far more time on their hands. Some feel liberated to abandon long-held proprieties. Elegant vape pens and other attractive, discreet products have helped de...

Davis police investigators said they recovered evidence from the rental property of the man who shot and killed one of their officers Thursday, including a note they believe was written by the man and two guns that were not registered to him. On Saturday, police released a one-paragraph letter they believe was written by Kevin Douglas Limbaugh. Spokesman Lt. Paul Doroshov told reporters that the paper was found face up on the bed of the gunman. The letter reads: “The Davis Police department has been hitting me with ultra sonic waves meant to keep dogs from barking. I notified the...

Two more police officers have been shot in the line of duty. That makes 3 killed by gunfire, 4 killed with cars, and 2 more remain in critical condition after being shot. That is JUST this year and it's ONLY January. When is enough, enough? When will the rest of us get tired of our "front line" being killed because of the job they do and the uniform they wear? The time is long past due for "we the people" to decide that criminals should NOT be mollycoddled, their rights encased in solid gold while ours and those of police...

Police in Northern California responded to a "mass casualty overdose" situation on Saturday that resulted in one death and a dozen people hospitalized. Authorities said that the incident was caused by exposure to the deadly opioid fentanyl, which also affected two responding officers, according to NBC News. Mike O'Brien, a police captain in Chico, Calif., said at a news conference that four of the victims were in critical condition. "Certainly there's potential for additional fatalities," O'Brien said. "I want to emphasize that."

Industry experts say the diminished tax income reflects a somber reality: Most consumers are continuing to purchase pot in the illegal marketplace, where they avoid taxes...Newsom also recommended a sharp increase in spending for regulatory programs, although it’s an open question whether it will be enough to help steady the state pot economy. The budget recommends just over $200 million for marijuana-related activities in the fiscal year...

Ten states and Washington, D.C., have now legalized adult use of marijuana.Supporters of America's long war on drugs said legalization would create disaster. Has it? No.Colorado and Washington offer the longest points of comparison because weed has been legal in those states now for five years.More people in Colorado tried marijuana after legalization, but that's not a surprise.Colorado's crime rate did rise a bit. But many things influence crime rates. Washington state's violent crime rate rose a little but slightly less than the national average.In California, people I interviewed said legalization made the streets safer. "It's cleaned up the corner,"...

A 2018 survey of employers across the U.S. found that 5% are considering removing marijuana from their workplace drug testing panel in the next 12 months[1]. Perhaps more frightening is the number of employers who are on the fence about the removal of marijuana from their panels – a shocking 23% of employers from the same survey. At first glance, removing marijuana from the panel may seem like a good idea – but is it really? Aren’t There Pros to Removing Marijuana From my Testing Panel? Undoubtedly, an employer could identify pros in deciding to stop testing for marijuana in...

... The most obvious way that cannabis fuels violence in psychotic people is through its tendency to cause paranoia. Even marijuana advocates acknowledge that the drug can cause paranoia; the risk is so obvious that users joke about it, and dispensaries advertise certain strains as less likely to do so. But for people with psychotic disorders, paranoia can fuel extreme violence. A 2007 paper in the Medical Journal of Australia looked at 88 defendants who had committed homicide during psychotic episodes. It found that most of the killers believed they were in danger from the victim, and almost two-thirds reported...

The experiment to sell recreational marijuana in Ventura County has largely been successful if you ask law enforcement officials in both Port Hueneme and Ojai, where the first shops opened legally. In 2018, California legalized the sale of recreational pot for the first time. As of Wednesday, 639 medicinal and recreational retailers were licensed to sell cannabis products, according to the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control. Of those, 38 are recreational, 83 are medicinal, 517 are both and one has no designation. In Ventura County, the two cities – and seven dispensaries – where sales are permitted have served as...

When Californians voted in 2016 to allow the sale of recreational marijuana, advocates of the move envisioned thousands of pot shops and cannabis farms obtaining state licenses, making the drug easily available to all adults within a short drive. But as the first year of licensed sales comes to a close, California’s legal market hasn’t performed as state officials and the cannabis industry had hoped. Retailers and growers say they’ve been stunted by complex regulations, high taxes and decisions by most cities to ban cannabis shops. At the same time, many residents are going to city halls and courts to...

California marijuana dispensaries reported record-high holiday sales this Christmas as pot products became popular stocking stuffers this holiday season. Pot sales in the state soared in the first holiday season where recreational marijuana is legal in California, as many stores reported seeing five times the amount of customers they normally see. One Sacramento-area store, All About Wellness, reported seeing more than 150 customers per day during the 2018 holiday shopping season. On average, the store sees 20 to 25 customers per day. The increase in pot-hungry customers has also led to lines going out the door at stores. Kysa Butler,...

This is a subject weâ€™ve tackled here before, but as more and more states approve either medical or recreational marijuana use itâ€™s going to keep coming up. If people can legally partake in the use of the drug, how does law enforcement deal with suspected impaired drivers? There may be similar issues for people attempting to drive while drunk or stoned, but the medical science behind determining who is â€śtoo highâ€ť is far behind our ability to supposedly detect who is â€śtoo drunkâ€ť to drive. Massachusetts tasked a state commission with coming up with an answer and it doesnâ€™t...

Your taxpayer dollars are set to go up in smoke. Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to roll out the green carpet for budding pot dealers with a scheme to let them dip into the public purse to start businesses when the state legalizes marijuana.